Times in Congo and rescue mission
by Hungarican
Summary: This plays in modern times after the Tarzan movies and TV show. A Hungarian girl who lost her job applies for a new one in Congo. She moves there with a few of her ex-colleagues and gets acquainted with Tarzan and his friends. Contains funny scenes, drama, suspense, serious stuff. Kerchak isn't dead he's also in the story. Rated T to be sure (mentions estrus and cycle). TerkXOC
1. Prologue

I have almost worked for a year in a cosmetic's company in Africa. The previous firm where I labored also produced cosmetic products. This was a company mutually owned by Romania and Hungary located in Transylvania, for 5 years I had been an employee there. We exported our toll-manufactured goods to various points in the world from France to Japan, moreover the Australians trusted us in the mass production of a few of their products. Our private label products scored full marks in the domestic market and in the international market as well. We began generating higher profits when we soon adopted the new trends we discovered during market research such as halal, vegan, paraben-free and natural cosmetic.

We had so many orders in my 4th year that we didn't possess the proper capacity to be able to fulfill all of them. In the same year our executive director resigned, he found a better workplace. In a short time we hired Jürgen, who came from an Austrian pharmaceutical fine, as new director. Under his management the negative changes started. He spent the firm's money on appearance, he preferred the beautifying of the exterior to the correcting of the internal processes and to the replacing of the old machines. He did not listen to the other managers, his inferiors, who have been part of the staff for a longer time than he. He also disregarded their complaints, only the implementing of his own concepts interested him. The neglect of consumer research and searching for new partners started. Our old partners withdrew several products from circulation, as a result we toll manufactured fewer products. Every one of these factors together called forth decreasing proceeds then, some of us resigned, several colleagues were dismissed. The managers allegedly lamented to the company owners about Jürgen's faults. Later we parted with Jürgen by mutual consent. The cutbacks continued, finally I was next.

I didn't think my job would be scrapped too, due to the fact that I know English quite well because I was born abroad. The firm used my English knowledge. Not even my parents suspected my becoming unemployed, they comforted me with the facts that I have 5 years of job experience besides my chemical engineering BSc, I'm a double citizen, my diploma has good qualification, I will find another job quickly. After the first day of my dismissing I already began job hunting. I applied for a lot of interesting positions advertised by chemical corporations, I went to multiple interviews, even proceeded to the 2nd round in several cases.

Even while travelling to interviews, I still sent applications to different positions, this is when I stumbled upon the most interesting one: the cosmetics company, Mama Africa, situated in Congo is looking for a person with a chemical engineering BSc qualification for the department of research and development for the job of cosmetic formulator, the workplace is in Congo. At first I couldn't believe my big hazel eyes and got excited. I found out that this is a new fine and they wish to employ a lot of people for diverse positions. I shared the news with a fraction of my ex-colleagues and let them know that I will attempt to get the job. I forwarded my curriculum vitae to the company. 1 week later I received the e-mail stating that they want to do an interview with me via Skype on next week Friday. That certain day came, the conversation went on in English with the African human resource manager. She promised that 1 week later I get a reply via e-mail whether I will move on into the second round or not. They kept their word, I succeeded in making it to the next level. The next interview was scheduled 2 weeks later, the place being the company in Congo. I have never travelled abroad alone before, but what calmed me was knowing that the firm manages the making of the reservation and the transporting me to the company from the hotel.

My flight was relatively smooth. However we ended up in the dispersing clouds of the remnants of a storm. Sometimes these nimbi scattered lightning about as thick as my arm in between themselves. Since I was sitting next to the window, I experienced them up close and personal, they were lashing out 1-2 meters from me. After the airplane landed the rain couldn't reach us anymore. Instantly, I noticed those folks who will drive me to the accommodation. One of them was holding up a sign with my name written on it. I walked up to them, we began chatting in English. After reaching the hotel I felt so tired that I would have took a nap. After preparing for the next day and setting the morning alarm on my phone I got to bed and dozed off pretty quickly. I slumbered so deep as if the time between entering dreamland and waking up were cut out of my life.

I was surprised when I noticed that I didn't wake up in my room, a minute later I realized that I'm staying in Congo. I ate breakfast then, I was picked up and given a lift to the firm that was built close to the jungle. My future boss, a middle-aged African man named Oldulayo, who's got a chemical engineering MSc degree, was also present during the interview. How lucky are Africans that they age slower than light-skinned people! I had to wait 3 weeks for the outcome of this conversation. After I travelled home, I still visited various places to be interviewed.

After the 3 weeks I received the e-mail that I am hired. I reacted similarly to these news as I did when discovering the position of this company. I can now move to Africa! At least it's not cold there, this continent yields a lot of tropical fruit and holds a rich flora and fauna.


	2. New colleagues

The company assisted in the complicated arrangements and moving. I moved in the workers' hostel near the firm. Thank God, the rooms were furnished with one bed each, but neither refrigerators nor air conditioning could be found in them. Each chamber was also established with a shelf above the bed, a table next to the bed located in the middle of the room and a wardrobe. Every level was supplied with a mutual refrigerator, a kitchen with a stove and a washing-up bowl. On the lowest level of the hostel was the laundry room situated containing 2 washing machines and detergents. Our humble lodging possessed 3 clothes-horses, in order to use them you had to talk with the porter who documented the waiting list of the usage. The men's and women's bath and shower rooms were designed for mutual use per level as in dormitories. After I unpacked my things and put everything in place I strolled down to the local store to buy food.

As I was shopping I was stricken by an unexpected surprise: I caught sight of one of my ex-colleagues, András (Andrew), browsing in the back part of the building. Andrew worked as a producer at our old workplace, he was considered an outstanding workforce and was counted as a jokester too. He was about 45-50 years of age, had the style of a rocker, wore his red hair tied back in a ponytail, his fair freckled skin was decorated by a few tattoos, he passed for Viking. Another of his characteristic features was making jokes about a few topics, but thanks to his creativity, he innovated his jokes a lot. I hurried up to him and greeted him.  
"Hello, Andrew! I can't believe you accepted a job here too!"  
"Hi, Anita! Well, I'm here. You know, Tena Lady is much cheaper here than in Romania, this is why I moved to Africa! And who knows what kinds of tropical diseases you can catch, I will need a lot of Tena Lady, because if I contract them, I will have to change them sooner."  
I thought, I will add to my old acquaintance's jokes in hope of hearing something new and funny.  
"Among the tropical diseases there is the Ebola virus for example and you can end up falling ill if you drink from one of the nearby lakes."  
"Oh, Ebola is a great idea! If I already survived the bubonic plague, anthrax and cholera then, Ebola can come, I have never tried that before. Just need to find an ape who will bite me. By the way did you know that Cavinton is good against Ebola?"  
"Does Cavinton have a positive effect on blood circulation and digestion? Does it terminate constipation?"  
"Oh, that is good for every health problem! It even combats Ebola! It is the best medication for constipation. Márkusz (Marcus) tried it and he ended up having to change his Tena Lady 3 times during a shift. The Tena Lady was so full that he could barely walk and it bulged out on his buttocks so much that it looked as if he traded butts with Kim Jong-un. We were very lucky that it didn't explode!"  
I was laughing at his joke to the extent that I blushed and almost ended up shedding a few tears.  
I continued shopping while having a difficult time oppressing my giggling when Andrew's jokes came up in my mind. After I returned to the workers' hostel there were some people sitting at tables on the terrace and talking. I took notice of a white, slender, brown-eyed girl with a bob dyed blonde who was sitting behind me and spoke English in a British accent. She was reporting our old workplace to her listeners. At this moment I recognized this lady, she was Judit (Judith) who worked as a project manager. I went up to her, she found it incredible that she had seen me. I mentioned that Andrew moved here too and I bumped into him while buying groceries. She doubted my statement, and told me this is impossible that all three of us accepted a job here. She introduced me to her company, that is, our new colleagues. Every one of them was born in Congo. Shortly after I placed my fresh foodstuffs into the fridge I joined them and got acquainted with them.

1 hour later, Andrew took part in the conversation and entertained us with his jokes. Around this time the sun was setting and the bottom of the sky brought a slightly dirty pinkish orange hue with it whilst exotic birds and frogs let their songs be heard. The lights facing the yard were turned on attracting a cloud of tiny flying insects surrounding them. The swarm increased as time passed. Andrew brought up the topic of Ebola. One Congolese man who was sitting in a way that his field of vision contained the wilderness made himself heard while pointing to the foregrounds of the jungle.  
"There are your nominees, Andrew. Mountain gorillas."  
Everyone glanced in the direction shown. Gorillas were wandering around in the grass with a silverback, having several females and offspring, leading them. Judith started to worry and let us know that.  
"I don't want them to come here!"  
"They won't harm you, only if you provoke them. The most important things are these: don't approach them, don't look in their eyes, don't beat your chest. The hitting of the chest means challenge, if you do this the silverback will battle you. No man can defeat him using only his brute strength against him. If they would attack you, the best decision to make is to avoid eye contact and throw yourself on the ground on your stomach and remain down. They will assume you surrendered, they won't hurt you."  
Oldulayo explained these useful pieces of knowledge to us. We chatted, entertained ourselves and drank until nighttime. The next day we started working.


	3. Pig slaughter and gorilla encounter

The first year went by fast. I labored as a developmental assistant at the Romanian-Hungarian company, mostly I did paper work and sometimes I inspected productions. I could have had the position of cosmetic formulator and worked in a lab, this is what I originally wanted at the previous firm, but the jobs in the lab were already occupied. My boss, Oldulayo, initiated me into formulating, we determined the compositions of several experimental products together. Next I could make these in the laboratory. After this, the laboratory technicians put these samples up for stability testing. After the expiration of the test it came to light whether the endurance of the sample was adequate or the composition needed redesigning. If the product met the requirements we implemented the mass production of the product in kilos or tons.

The colleagues treated me very kindly and their helpfulness also showed. I took part in the events organized by the company such as the end of the year party, trips and safaris. I created good relationships.

We have seen the apes close to the jungle more than once, thank God they didn't draw near to our accommodation, but in our first year a curious, black, wooly gorilla baby roved to us twice at sunset while we were sitting outside conversing with each other. When we noticed that it sat about 2-3 meters away from us, we quieted down and silently snuck into the workers' hostel as if it were in slow motion.

Since our Congolese colleagues have grown fond of Judith, Andrew and I and we described to them several Hungarian traditions including the pig slaughter, we were bought a barrow pig that weighed just right for slaughter on the day of our first anniversary. The pen, where the pig spent a week, was constructed in the yard. We fed it, supplied it with water and cleaned up after it, we took turns doing the later.

On Saturday I got the task of removing the feces. For the reason of not having a place marked for depositing the stool we poured the excrement in a pile on the edge of the rain forest. When I transported the droppings I felt the cool vapor which radiated from the jungle stroke my face and heard the flies buzzing around the mound of pig products. A great pandemonium seduced the critters when I poured the fresh fecal matter on the old. Influenced by panic they took wing then, returned a minute later. The next day during the mutual breakfast I received news from Andrew about what happened.  
"The pig disappeared!"  
"How can that be," I asked.  
"Well, SOMEBODY, forgot to lock the gate after she cleaned the pen!"  
Now, it dawned on me that I really did forget to lock it.  
"Whoopsa daisies," I said when my face turned red out of shame and everyone's gaze fixated on me.  
"It's too late to recall the pig-stickers," a project manager let us know.  
"Then, it would be great to find the pig especially for the reason of our really looking forward to the slaughter, exceptionally those who have never seen such an event," said Judith.  
"You are going to search for the pig because you ruined this," said Andrew lacking emotion.  
"Now, I shall go into the wilderness alone without any weapon? What if the gorillas dismember me?"  
"I have a machete. Take it with you and keep yourself to the things Oldulayo mentioned," suggested a machine operator.  
"So is this final that I go alone to locate the pig?"  
"Fine then, let's vote. Whoever is for Anita finding the pig, raise their hand," enquired Andrew.  
Most of the people put up their hand.  
"The job is yours, hurry, because the slaughter men will be here a few hours later," exhorted Andrew.  
I wasn't too happy about having to solve this on my own. I sighed deeply, looked down and rubbed my face in my hands.  
"Take a radio or a cell phone with you or something that plays music or emits noise. If the gorillas hear human noise they recede," advised Oldulayo.  
"Okay. I'll set forth."  
I stored a bag of fodder in my backpack with which I will be able to lure the swine if he doesn't intend to follow me out of free will. I also packed some fruit and a Sport bar too. It flashed in my mind, since they mentioned music and sounds, that I can play anything that I like to listen to on maximum volume on my phone. I began feeling enthusiastic about my mission.

I let the long version of the song Let the Music Play by Barry White play and entered the jungle. Thank God, the mist saturated the soil to the degree that the outlines of the pig tracks could be accurately visible therefore the fulfillment of the task seemed easy. Now and then the calls of parrots became audible, a mostly red specimen glided right over my head. Male cicadas were performing their loud mating songs. I caught sight of vivid green one mottled with gold sitting on a tree trunk, I took a photo of it. I started snapping my fingers, the large, fly-like insect headed towards my hand, due to the fact that it was a male and mistook my snapping for the female's call of acceptance. I made the same noise in the other way, the cicada began crawling in the opposite direction. I continued my journey, wandered deeper into the jungle whose density increased and the crunchy, brown dead leaves covered more and more areas of the ground. Finally they cloaked the soil as a thick, uniform, sandalwood-scented quilt. This is where I lost the hoof prints. I found a stick nearby dappled with forest green, velvety moss. I grabbed it but because of the scare, which caused physical pain to roam all the way through my spine, I immediately retracted my hand, since I had felt something cold and slimy on the bough. I turned over the branch with my shoe and with a feeling of disgust did I accept the sight of lemon-yellow slugs about the sizes of fingers stuck to the stick. Little Jabbas, I thought. Hardly conquering my abhorrence I took hold of the slug-free end of the bough and raked up the dead leaves which probably hid the other footprints. With disappointment I experienced that the layer consisting of the leaves absorbed the weight of the hog so decently that the imprints were not visible anymore. Sadness diffused in me, I sat down in front of a tree trunk letting it support my back and played Barry White's song I'm So Blue and You are Too. I just ogled into the distance.

It came to my mind that I put a Sport bar in my book bag, I pulled it out. I opened the wrapper and wished to raise it towards my mouth, but the hand of a soot-black, long, hairy arm without hesitation yanked it out of my hand. The Barry White song was still playing. In the first half of this minute I didn't have the courage to raise my glance. Slowly and carefully I looked up. An overweight female mountain gorilla was squatting less than a meter from me. There was a high prospect that she could have snuck out from behind the tree. She was staring at me with big greenish brown eyes whilst devouring my chocolate bar with joy. The hit could still be heard and it got to the start of the good part. I remembered the advice, which Oldulayo shared with us.

I observed this specimen in a more detailed way. The hairs on the top of her head were 20-25 cms long and stood up with their upper halves gradually leaning forward. After the gorilla finished eating she kept examining me. She held a strand of my hair, felt its texture then, let go of it. She began sniffing my head and neck, it really bothered me that she was only a few centimeters away from my face. Maybe she likes my perfume? I sprayed my face and neck with Little Black Dress this morning. After getting bored with the repeated smelling her eyes became glued on my rucksack. She began touching it and found out how to open it which she also did. She smelt the bag containing the pig feed, grimaced from cloying and instantly sent the sack on a parabolic path behind herself. Thank God, the bag was made out of a stiff fabric and it stayed rolled-up therefore its content didn't spill. The ape kept searching in my book bag, she was thrilled when she found the fruit which she hastily gobbled up.

From my left I heard deep noises seeming like crosses between gibbering and hooting. I turned my head in the direction of the source. A silverback was 50 meters away from us, he was angrily watching the female, who immediately crawled to him. She rushed to him and they continued their way together into the dark depths of the jungle.

A minute later I was taken aback by grunting. The pig was digging in front of me. I had not even the slightest idea where he came from, I felt glad that he turned up. Using the fodder bag I successfully lead him into the yard of the accommodation where the pig-stickers and colleagues were waiting impatiently. The slaughter men and a portion of my colleagues quickly surrounded the swine, the vehement protest from the hog's part started in the form of screaming and grunting. A few of us took notice of the black apes watching us with interest from the edge of the wilderness.  
"Just don't let them come here," shouted Judith.  
I suddenly remembered my encounter with one of them in the rain forest.  
"Guess what, an ape came up to me, ate my Sport bar, looked at my hair, sniffed me, dug my things out of my backpack, consumed the fruit which I took with me, threw the feed bag away. Finally, the silverback called her and she left."  
"Nice joke."  
"I am serious."  
The pig slaughter seemed successful, the scorching began with the flame thrower. The malodor of burnt hair spread in the air. Within the blink of an eye the swine abruptly jumped up and with its maximum speed fled into the wilderness close to the gorillas while pulling a dispersing, grey smoke trail after himself.  
"I don't believe this," said Andrew shaking his head.  
"Don't go after it, who knows how the apes will act if you draw close," warned Oldulayo.  
I told Oldulayo about my meeting the gorilla in the jungle. Unlike Judith he believed me. Andrew started messing with me.  
"You played Barry White? You should know that his music rather attracts than repels. Why didn't you choose heavy metal?"  
"You know that I don't listen to that genre of music."  
"And why didn't you lure the gorilla to us? 'Cause when my Tena Lady gets so filled that it's on the ground and I can't drag it along with me, it needs to be cleaned as an outhouse. 2 strong arms would be great whose owner would pull back my Tena Lady for free and would shovel the bubbling lava-like stuff out of it in exchange for bananas."  
Oldulayo, the others and I cracked up.  
"And what will happen when you eat foods causing flatulence," I asked.  
"Then we need to give more fruit to the ape. The stuff bubbles more because of the gas and there's a bigger chance that it splashes on the poor thing and she also needs to undertake the endurance of the stench, especially after field beans and blue cheese. After she finishes the cleaning, she earns her portion of fruit. After this, the hot air balloon association can come here. I hop into the balloon with the tour guide and the tourists. They put on their gas masks so as not to lose consciousness. Then, the guide hollers: Now, supply the gas, Andy! I bend forward to the extent that I touch my toes and with my full power, followed by noise, I squeeze out the gas. I can generate enough gas for 10 000 meters. When we are high enough and face vultures they follow a downward spiral while fainting when we approach them."  
We tittered at this joke too.  
"And how are you going to solve it, when the gorillas come close to us," asked Judith.  
"Then this is the solution: wherever we want to draw the border between our territory and the gorillas' land we collect my used Tena Lady's there. If that doesn't work, we purchase the flame thrower from the pig-stickers, I eat a bunch of cabbage, beans, eggs and meat, go to the intruders, play Mama Kukorella on my phone to set the mood, turn my back, put the flame thrower behind my butt and let my throaty farts free. Due to the flames reaching toward them enlarged by the gas and the putrid smell they will surely retreat. Moreover, if I'm skillful enough I will burn the fur, from head to foot, off a few of them. Now, then there will be shame and it will be an unforgettable lesson to them so that they don't roam around on our territory."  
This joke was successful too.  
"What is Mama Kukorella," asked a young girl who works in the filling and packing area.  
Andrew played Hafanana by Afrik Simone on his phone.  
"Where is Mama Kukorella in this," I enquired.  
"They will say it shortly," answered Andrew.  
"That's hanana kukanella," a mechanic corrected Andrew.  
"It's Mama Kukorella to me and it will stay that way," retorted Andrew.  
So that the slaughterman wouldn't feel as they came for no reason, we received them, gave them food and drink, played Solo with them.


	4. Venturing into the jungle

In the following days after work and dinner a few of us ventured into the jungle. We were driven by our curiosity about the flora and fauna, which pushed our fears aside, even Judith's gorilla-phobia. Among our colleagues the ones who were native and experienced in tour guiding lead the way.

When we heard buzzing we noticed a nest covered by wasps in the bend between a tree trunk spotted with snow white, nearly glowing tinder fungi and its lower branch. All of the insects were facing the same direction looking upwards, composing a homogeneous orange-black cover without any holes on their half meter wide dwelling place. Andrew cautiously went a little closer to the nest. When he stepped nearer than 3 meters the wasps altered their behavior. Starting from one point the creatures bounced up their abdomens, the motion spread to the specimens surrounding them, this looked similar to circular waves spreading on the surface of water after a pebble had been tossed in it. One of the tour guides quickly advised Andrew to back away otherwise he will be attacked. He explained to us that this is a warning sign from the wasps and we had better move on.

After 1 minute of sauntering, a branch above our heads snapped, we glanced up hearing the crack. Small, brownish red monkeys ran after another with ease in a single-file line in the foliage. Andrew clapped his hands once to raise their attention. The creatures abruptly stopped and took stock of us. One of them turned their back, showed us its bottom and raised its tail. While this was happening Oldulayo speedily told us to run away. Whoever didn't take his advice got wetted by the monkey urine shower for example Andrew ended up like this.

We continued our tour, about a half hour later splashing sounds caught our attention. One of our colleagues mentioned that there is a waterfall close by whose water gushes into a lake which is a favorite place of an elephant heard. He suggested that we should approach the lake quietly. From time to time trumpeting clove the air and we heard rumbles as we strolled towards the water. We spied on the pachyderms from the bushes framing the lakeside. Several of us took pictures and filmed them with our phones. The herd consisted of 10 members: the matriarch, 2 bulls, 5 cows and 2 calves who were unthoughtfully chasing each other and splashing in the water.

10 minutes later we looked backward out of fright, hearing the crunching of dead leaves and sticks. A huge male elephant was heading our way and that certain gorilla, who I met before, was sitting on his back. We didn't dare move nor speak, we just squatted in one place and ogled at them. They stopped about 4 meters from us, the elephant made his sharp trumpeting heard startling everyone, moreover Judith tipped over. The ape noticed my book bag, leapt off of the pachyderm and hurried to me. She opened my backpack then, swiftly and keenly began digging in it. Since she couldn't find anything edible she blankly looked into my eyes and with a stone face loudly grunted out of disappointment and returned to her sitting place on her carrier.  
"Now do you believe me," I whispered quietly with a bit of aggression to Judith who was still laying on the soil in fetal position.  
She didn't answer anything, just remained silent and still.

We could hear steps again from the direction of the bull elephant. We didn't anticipate a man joining the 2 animals. He wore a turquoise V-neck T-shirt, drab shorts and tennis shoes. A rifle hung on his back. His slightly wavy, messy hair dark brown hair reached the upper part of his back. He studied us suspiciously with his green-blue eyes.  
"Who are you and why are you here," he wanted to know.  
"We work for a cosmetics company, we are workers. We came here on a tour," responded a machine operator a little shyly.  
"We would like you to tell us who you are," I requested.  
"I am Tarzan, but my human name is John Clayton. I work as a ranger. I live in the jungle with my wife, Jane, who works as a nature film broadcaster. The elephant and the gorilla are close friends of mine, I have known them since my early childhood. By the way I was raised by gorillas, my parents deceased when I was a baby. A female named Kala who became my mother instead of my mother found me and brought me up. If I mentioned Kala's name, the elephant's name is Tantor and the gorilla is called Terkina."  
We tardily stood up, but were still afraid of the animals.  
"Would you introduce us to your family, I'm interested in gorillas," said Oldulayo.  
"Just don't let them hurt us," spat out Judith in an irritated tone.  
"They won't, just stay close to me," advised Tarzan.  
We only journeyed 10 meters when I unzipped the smallest compartment of my rucksack and took out a Sport bar. Terkina immediately raised her head hearing the crackling of the aluminum rapper, her vision focused on the chocolate and licked her lips. She jumped off Tantor's back, I started running, she scoured after me.  
"Andrew, catch," I exclaimed and tossed him my Sport bar. Andrew reacted swiftly and caught it. Now, the ape girl scampered after him at full throttle on fours. Andrew quickly got rid of the chocolate bar, he threw it towards someone else. We formed a circle excluding Tarzan and his company and passed my Sport bar to each other, while Terk tried to obtain it to no avail.  
"Somebody stop that beast," yelled a girl who works in the filling and packaging department.  
Before Tarzan could react, I pulled out something from my book bag: slices of hot pepper hidden in a Sport bar wrapper. I squatted and crunched the aluminum.  
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty! Come here!"  
Terkina crept towards me while panting, she didn't appear to be happy, but rather a little mad. She plucked the food out of my hand, while angrily looking at me then, she grunted in my face, crawled further and pulled out the pieces of pepper. She gave me a strange look, did a little thinking. Finally, she bit her loot. Seconds later those big brown eyes grew wide and tears began emerging from them. Terk hastily spat out the chewed up pepper while coughing intensely and galloped towards the lake as if she were a speeding bullet. She hurried into the water and quickly rinsed her mouth whilst tears were rolling down her wooly facial hair.  
"What did you give her," asked Tarzan strictly.  
"Hot pepper," I answered. "She already stole one Sport bar from me earlier, dug out my things from my backpack, devoured my fruit which was in it," I explained. "The precious, little Terkina did this," I added half ironically.  
Terk returned to us partially soaked. She gibbered something to Tarzan, while taking glances of me. I was certain, she was complaining about me. Tarzan replied to her in gorilla. We went on to the dimmer parts of the jungle. About half an hour later the sight of nests, having a diameter of circa 3 meters, composed of branches situated on foliage-rich trees greeted us. In some of these adult females were sitting holding their infants on their chests and shoulders. A few specimens were raising teenaged young.

The females had a harder time getting the striplings to obey them. During these occasions they called the silverback for help, who disciplined them in a short time. We were eye- and ear witnesses of one of these scenes. 2 teenage males erupted from the shrubs under the nests as cannon balls. One of them fueled by rage whilst screaming was chasing the other and smacked his persecutee's head. In that second the pursued one turned towards him and began clobbering him with his lengthy, muscular arms. His partner reacted the same way, they were now beating each other while letting out shrieks and snarling. The cacophonous sounded like a protest gone wrong, the silverback suddenly appeared, stood on his hind legs and ran towards the 2 males while angrily roaring and beating his wide chest. The young ones surrendered themselves in a heartbeat, and played possum on the ground. One minute later they shamefully roamed back to where they came from. The big male and Tarzan started communicating in gorilla.  
"Kerchak says, you can stay as guests here, but don't break the peace," Tarzan let us know.  
The silverback caught sight of Kala, who was heading towards us. The female was carrying her infant on her back. The leader and Kala lovingly rubbed their cheeks, their baby crawled over to Kerchak's back. Terkina hung her head and looked to the ground.  
"Kerchak has been very happy now. A month ago Kala birthed his son. He had another boy who was eaten by a leopard. After this, Kala adopted me. Kerchak hadn't accepted me as his son for years, he had grieved for a long time. By the way Kala is his first female and his favorite in one. Terkina's heart sank, because she is reminded, that Kerchak and her mother never enjoyed such a good relationship as one like Kerchak's and Kala's," explained Tarzan.  
"Why wasn't the relationship tighter," I enquired.  
"Terk's mother is different than Kala, she enjoys it when she is right in everything. She has horned in multiple times which way the troop should travel when she is inexperienced. When she was bringing up Terkina she chipped on Terkina's behavior multiple times saying that she should make friends with girls too and should be more serious. Now, she is badgering her about reproduction whereas Terk doesn't want any children. She has annoyed Kerchak more than once when she is in estrus when Kerchak doesn't make court to her. This year Kerchak has had it with her, he avoided her on purpose during her estruses and threatened her that he will expel her from the troop if she keeps up with this behavior. Kala is patient, nurturing, open and accepting. She is a good mother and can express her opinion about things without offending Kerchak."  
We went on with the gorilla tour, Tarzan was successful in introducing most of them to us including 2 brothers, Flynt and Mungo, who were Tarzan's childhood friends besides Terk. Among the traits of the boys' playfulness, fun and pulling pranks deserve to be mentioned. Flynt grew to a smaller size and was thinner than his kin, he had a grayish black fur coat. Mungo was considered overweight, the color of his hair was similar to the tint of dark chocolate. One time, the youngsters woke up at dusk, snuck into Tarzan's and Jane's treehouse, silently drew out 2 teaspoons from the kitchen drawer and also stole a bucket. They wandered to the place under the sleeping parrots' nests to gather guano then, speedily crept up the trees over the band's fore planned route and eagerly waited on their would-be victims. They positioned themselves so that the dense, dark green leaves of the branches spotted with yellow flowers would serve as concealment, but they could drop bird stool through the holes. Mungo began making exotic whistles whereas Flynt started squawking. During the making of the noises they dropped the parrot guano spoon-by-spoon on their unsuspecting family members. Kerchak was hit on top of his head with a blot, while Kala felt scared and jumped back when the portion of guano meant for her landed in front of her with a splat. The young males succeeded in hitting several of their mates on various body parts. They haplessly had more fun when Kerchak's furious head pierced the leaves within a second, its murderous gaze causing fear in the striples. The leading male's thick arm suddenly punched a hole in the leaves knocking the bucket containing the guano out of Flynt's hand. Kerchak tore the spoons out of the boys' hands and let them fall to the ground. Then he grappled Mungo by his ear, which resulted in a loud shout, and while crawling down pulled him down to the ground with him. Then, he urgently went to Flynt, who was still squatting on the bough paralyzed by pain. The youngster quickly grasped his ear so that the silverback wouldn't have to force him down as he had done to his brother. Kerchak let him know that he can't creep down like that and offered his assistance. This resulted in his coarsely grabbing Flynt's ear and making Flynt descend with him. At the end of the trip we reached a tall tree that possessed a whitish brown trunk on which a ladder constructed of ropes and planks showed the way up to the floor of the tree house embracing the trunk.  
"This is my home," said Tarzan.  
"Where's Jane," asked Judith.  
"She is not home right now, she is making a nature special about the life cycles of native butterfly species a kilometer away from us."  
"I would be interested in that," chimed Judith enthusiastically.  
"What would you say if we would invite you and Jane to our place on Saturday at 6 PM for dinner," offered Oldulayo.  
"Thank you for the invitation. We haven't got anything planned for Saturday, it's well with us."


	5. Dinner and party at our place

That certain Saturday came quickly. The red, spicy bean goulash was seething over the fire outside. Judith was the main cook, she had the most experience in the art of cooking among us. The breeze conveyed the smoke and aroma towards the jungle. At around 5 PM singing coming from the rain forest raised our attention.  
"Shooby doop dabah dop dobby doop dobby dah dah doo dop!  
Doo bop she doo voo!"  
The song consisted of a lower pitched female voice and younger male voices.  
"What song is this," asked Judith.  
"I have no clue, I think this is just gibberish."  
The warbling continued.  
"This is awful," Andrew let us know. "Hey, whoever you are in the deep, stop this chanting!"  
The singing which some of us thought was annoying immediately ceased. Out of the bushes emerged three young gorillas: Flynt, Mungo and Terkina. All three of them began smelling the air. When the waft carried the tasty smell of the goulash towards them the Pavlovian reflex indicating hunger, mouthwatering, started. The three wild animals pelted towards us with their sight stuck to the kettle. Judith was standing in front of the bubbling almost fully prepared food. She was angered by the sight of the uninvited apes. She swiftly grabbed the wooden spoon, madly and threateningly waited for the gorillas. Several of us stood by her sides, making a living wall.  
"If you dare to touch my cooking, I'm going to strike of yours hands with this wooden spoon then drum on your heads with it," she threatened, screaming on the top of her lungs.  
It's typical of our project manager to love cooking and if she invites guests over she strives with maximum effort to make meals taste their possible best. The apes stopped for a few seconds to think. Mungo's stomach was grumbling, he slowly approached.  
"Be gone," roared Judith. The dark brown male quivered due to being spooked, but that didn't hold him back.  
"I have an idea," I announced. I drew my phone out of my pocket and started playing the song Dirty Trip by Air from the 75th second on maximum volume. Due to the gliding and buzzing noises relative to the calls of some foreign animal increasing in volume the apes quickly covered their ears with their hairy hands. I can imagine these sounds intruding into one's mind when it switches off when ending up too close to a magnetar star. A unique trait of these stars is the generation of a strong magnetic field. If we were to be situated just 2-3 thousand kilometers away from one of these, the magnetic force would stretch apart the V-shape water molecules hiding in our body to linear form and would yank out our iron towards the center of the celestial body. We would dissolve if this were to occur.  
A characteristic bellow sheared the air. I stopped the music, we shifted our attention to the source. Tarzan and Jane were walking toward us, waving their hands. We signaled back. Oldulayo went before the couple and sat them down at the table on the terrace. Andrew pulled out a mineral water bottle that had half a liter capacity, twisted the top off and offered it to Tarzan and Jane.  
With a smiling face he asked, "Would you fancy some water? This is a special kind, smell it."  
"Why does this have a stinging, fruity scent," asked Jane.  
"That's no water, that is pálinka," I explained. "It's a Hungarian drink that has a relatively high alcohol content, only a little should be drunk of it. Whoever has a sensitive stomach, it is not for them. Andrew, you smuggled pálinka?"  
"Yes," he answered exultantly.  
"It's good that you didn't get caught."  
"Tarzan, please tell your little friends to back away from the kettle," requested Judith impatiently.  
"Mungo, Flynt, Terk get away from there!"  
The animals promptly obeyed.  
"But I'm hungry," protested Mungo.  
Everybody became shocked because the ape spoke. The bottle of pálinka slipped out of Andrew's hand and fell down, luckily for him he had already sealed it. We stared at Mungo.  
"I can explain. I tought them how to talk," answered Tarzan.  
"The whole troop," enquired a machine operator.  
"Yes," said Tarzan.  
Terkina couldn't control herself. She slinked back to the kettle. I caught her and hurried to her. I took my cell phone out of my pocket and pointed it in her direction.  
"If you touch the food, I'm going to play the song again."  
"That's not music, that's monstrosity."  
"And is that doop bop she doop or that medley music? It sounds as if a chorus of drunken sailors lead by Rosie O'Donnel sang some kind of babble."  
Tarzan cut in, "Stop bickering, you two! You cannot argue about taste, so stop doing so. Is there by chance some fruit you can feed my friends with?"  
"Yes there is. I'll bring it out," volunteered Andrew and returned with a bag of fruit. He walked up to Mungo.  
"What's your favorite fruit?"  
"Cantaloupe."  
Andrew bent forward while taking a cantaloupe out from the bottom of the bag and gave it to Mungo.  
"Because of this bending my sciatica is making itself felt," announced Andrew.  
"What's sciatica," wanted to know Flynt.  
"Your butt cramps, and sometimes it feels as if lighting strikes it. In my cause my buns just keep vibrating."  
Most of us laughed at the joke.  
"And since when have you had your sciatica," I asked for fun.  
"Ever since we took part in the gorilla tour. Kerchak gave us an ugly look and for one moment I looked him in the eye and in the next moment my butt contracted. So I caught it from Kerchak. His case is worse than mine. He has a bigger booty therefore it generates more powerfull vibrations. Sometimes his buns oscillate so much that when he eats fruit the fruit falls out of his mouth. It also occurs that the other cheek is shaking more frequently than the other, it's no use for him to try to sit in one place, he can't because he rotates, moreover his eye on the side of the more speedily quivering bun twitches."  
A lot of us chuckled.  
Andrew asked Flynt, "What fruit do you like?"  
"Oh, my... I don't have a favorite fruit, I like several of them. Do you have mangoes by chance?"  
"Yes, I do. Here's two of them."  
Andrew made his way towards Terk.  
"And what would you like, son?"  
"I'm not a boy, I'm a girl," answered Terk with an angry, coarse tone. "Please give me a banana."  
Andrew handed her a bunch.  
"Food's ready," hollered Judith.  
Everybody took a plastic bowl, a spoon, a napkin and their seat at the table.  
"What kind of food is this," enquired Jane.  
"Bean goulash, a traditional Hungarian food," answered Judith. "It consists of ground beef, beans, smoked ham and paprika cannot be excluded from it."  
"It's very delicious," complimented Tarzan.  
Everybody found Judith's cooking very tasty. After finishing eating we spent time talking and drinking, we laughed at Andrew's jokes and stories. We glanced at the gorillas and saw that the other members of their clan had arrived, Tantor too. The apes were sitting on the ground surrounding the anthills whose entrances they began probing with twigs. Tantor offered his trunk, stretching it to the mutual port when I interrupted him.  
"Wait, don't bother, I will help," I announced.  
In the next moment I ran inside our shelter for an extension cord and a vacuum cleaner. After I joined the members of the system, I placed the vacuum cleaner's pipe to the main entrance, I pressed it a little bit into the yellowish, dry, friable soil. Then, I switched on the vacuum cleaner in reverse. Only when things went wrong did I realize that the power of the vacuum cleaner was on maximum and I shouldn't have started with that level. The poor, unfortunate anties were evicted out of their sweet home similar to the way the steaming water jets out of the geysers of Yellowstone Park. The insects, having a body length of 1.5 cms, were spouted 4 meters high at such a speed that even a space shuttle would be jealous. At the end of the linear track they dispersed while rotating in several directions at the same time while jigging. After that, gravity won and the ants fell on the apes as small WW2 bombs. After their impacts they seeped into the dense fur and began biting the skin under it with their pincers. The outcome of this was a cacophony composed of panicky hooting and hasty scratching of itches. Tantor liked the result of attempt and had a hard time oppressing his laughs. At times the gorillas shot angry looks at me whilst grooming each other.  
"Oopsy daisies," I exclaimed. "I didn't expect this. Sorry people, uh, gorillas."  
I quickly departed from the band and returned to the people. One of our machine operators brought out his laptop and amplifier then, started to play his song list consisting of outlandish hits.  
"Now, we can party," he shouted with enthusiasm.  
The folks leisurely began accumulating in the yard to dance. Those people also came out to have fun who didn't belong to our tight circle. Finally, I too joined the dancers along with the sitting remainder. To my surprise I danced briskly even to the songs I dislike for example Mumbo No. 5 and Hey Baby. We chanted the later whilst dancing. Due to the fact that I had been dancing intensely for an hour I sat down to rest. I looked towards the apes, most of them were relaxing next to the jungle, the others were playing in the further part of the yard. A young, Kerchak-like silverback was at a slow pace approaching the ratio of the troop who were making merry. The young specimens immediately observed the stranger. Terkina crept towards the male with interest. When they were about 30 cms apart, they started sniffing each other. The mutual getting acquainted began then, Flynt, Mungo and the others in the little team joined the two individuals. The playing continued. The party reached the level at which we could request songs.  
"I would like you to play Pancsoló Kislány," said Andrew.  
Our colleague granted the request. The high-pitched voice of a little girl diffused in the air.  
"What's this? We can't dance to it," complained a producer.  
More and more people signaled their un-satisfaction finally, the song was stopped.  
"I request Blue by Eifel 65," chimed a laboratory technician courteously.  
Her request resulted in great success, most of us danced to it.  
"I would like you to play Words Don't Come Easy by FR David," requested Oldulayo.  
Andrew felt displeased by the song, out of protest he refused to dance.  
Among the songs asked were Kockahas from Venus, Kék a szeme by Fekete Pákó, All Because of You from Barry White, Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex, Hey Ya from Outkast, September by Earth, Wind and Fire, Street Talk from Bob Crewe, Old dog by Beenie Man.  
At around midnight the party was over, everybody retreated to bed. Since it was so late Tarzan and Jane slept in our hostel.


	6. Saturday at Tarzan's

The next Saturday Tarzan and Jane invited those from us to who they previously presented their gorilla family. When we arrived the sight of tables each supporting a pot and silverware surrounded by chairs and Jane's image unfolded before us. We greeted Jane and gave her our gifts: men's and women's cosmetics stable at higher temperatures.  
"Ever since I live in the jungle I don't use these."  
"These cosmetics possess higher heat stability, they were made for those who live in areas having a hot climate. By the way these products that we just gave you are the company's presents to the workers. We can give them to others," explained Oldulayo.  
Jane carried the goods into the tree house then, crawled down with Tarzan and Terk and paced quickly towards us.  
"You keep a gorilla in the house," I asked while grinning.  
"She has her own room," boasted Jane. "This is actually the guest room, but when we don't have guests she sometimes occupies the room."  
"Is she potty-trained," asked Andrew for fun.  
Terkina looked sourly in Andrew's eyes.  
"Yes," replied Tarzan.  
"But an adult diaper, let's say one in vivid pink, if there was one in her size, would look funny on her. If there isn't one for her we can fetch some foil from the filling and packaging area, get hold of Terkilla and wrap the foil around her thighs and bottom. Oh, but how would the poor animal look, a part of her fur would be matted down by the material while the uncovered hairs would protrude. In order for Terkina's body, which I don't know how attractive the other gorillas find, to look uniform, every part of her would need to be wrapped up. Oh, no, but in this case she won't be able to move nor eat! Therefore we cut holes for the eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. Finally, we place her into a wheelchair which has a barrel containing fruit puree installed above her head. An outlet tube having a valve would point out of the barrel, a lance connected to the tube would guide the food straight into Terkina's mouth."  
The ape girl's facial expression began showing more and more rage as we had trouble keeping our laughs in.  
"When Terka is hungry, someone opens the valve and the food can freely flow into her mouth. If she wants to spend time with her mates somebody, let's say you, Jane, will push her among them."  
"And how will she communicate with the others," enquired Tarzan.  
"It's great that you mentioned this. Terkina's better hand would be free and would push some buttons on a keyboard as Steven Hawking did, may the Lord bless his soul. Syllables of the gorilla tongue would be written in primers on the keys. She would press the buttons and this would play the gorilla noises in robot voice."  
"And how would the problem of going potty be solved," I asked.  
"Very good question," exclaimed Andrew and pointed to me. "We cut a big hole where her booty is and of course we make another hole in the seat of the wheelchair. We place a big container under the seat in which the end products collect. We don't have to dispose of them, we can sell them to the peasants under the name "Terk-kaka." The bag containing the poo would depict Terkina having a wide grin and showing a thumbs up. If we don't take the steps, which I just shared, that will result in the occurring of an undesired event. Without a hole made back there physics will tackle the problem. As the days pass the pressure in Terkina will increase. The atmospheric pressure and the tensile strength of the foil counters the Terk pressure. Since the later will take up higher and higher values, it will exceed the counter-pressure. I strongly suggest that you should put on protective clothing covering your whole body for the witnessing of such an occurrence, because Terkina will blast of like a hairy, black intercontinental, ballistic North Korean missile and instead of fuel, her products provide the momentum for lift."  
A few of us, including me, where heehawing while crying.  
We experienced with fright that Terk jumped on Andrew who tipped back along with his chair. The gorilla grabbed the collar of his shirt. Before she could began shaking him, Tarzan rebuked her.  
"Terk, control yourself!"  
"Didn't you hear what he said about me!? He offended me!"  
"Andrew, apologize."  
Apologize to an ape," asked Andrew strangely. "All right. Terkina, I'm sorry for hurting you."  
"Don't joke like that about me again," replied Terk.  
The rustling of dead leaves and breaking of sticks coming from the part of the jungle on our right caught our attention. A young silverback crawled out of the shrubs. Several of us thought it was Kerchak. Tarzan mentioned that this is a foreign male named Harambé, who strayed away from his troop and spends most of his time with Terkina, Mungo and Flynt. Harambé went up to Terkina, the two apes affectionately rubbed faces against one another's. Jane added that Kerchak let the male join the band under a few conditions: if necessary he partakes in those battles in which the troop needs to be protected and he cannot mate with Kerchak's females except with their descendants.  
The gorillas wandered off into the bushes where Mungo and Flynt awaited them.  
"The food is cooling," chirped Jane.  
We were so absorbed in conversation that we forgot about eating. Jane had prepared hearty beef soup composed of fresh beef and vegetables brought from the local market. Besides this meal we could continue with raw exotic fruit. A while later the band of gorillas lead by Kerchak appeared therefore with Tarzan's permission we could get to know them. Andrew selected the leader as his partner in conversation. Judith was getting acquainted with Kala, she could even hold her baby. Our attention was raised by two-toned singing. We looked in the direction of Kerchak and Andrew, who were sitting on the ground and singing Gedeon Bácsi by Szécsi Pál. The male was wearing Andrew's earphones, therefore he was able to sing the heard lines. I spent a big portion of my time with Harambé, Mungo, Flynt and Terkina. As time went by we dove into deeper topics. Mungo and Flynt brought up their fear of poachers. They asked me what happens to their victims. I didn't want to touch upon every possible fate, not to cause panic.  
"Some gorillas are taken to filthy rich families where they live their lives as house pets. Some are sold to zoos. In this case they spend most of their life among their mates in captivity rather than among humans. A zoo is a place where animals are kept in limited spaces, their keepers feed them and interact with them. Wealthier countries are able to establish the enclosures of their animals in a more home-like way whereas in the poorest zoos animals spend their lives in more confined places behind bars."  
I aroused consternation with my answer. Finally, we spoke about happier topics and had good laughs.


	7. Scare, stress, taboo, disco Kerchak

The following months went by quickly. We met Tarzan and Jane on a regular basis. Kerchak's band was nicely increasing in number, but as for the total gorilla population of Congo there wasn't a significant rise, moreover Tarzan and his fellow rangers found clues indicating the presence of poachers. Harambé and Terkina became a couple. Terk's mother pecked more on her daughter than before, she wanted a grandchild.

Not too long ago Terkina's cycle went out of balance and when Terk was supposed to be in estrus she didn't show the signs. She was greatly horrified, turned to Kala and enquired why this happened. The older female tried to soothe her by explaining to her that this happens at least once in every female's lifetime and this can be caused by stress, latent illness, sudden changes in lifestyle or diet. In the next month Terkina wasn't in heat and she noticed that her breasts became a bit swollen and she gained a little weight on her belly.

We were guests at Tarzan's when a powerful, sad, dismayed scream which would even be able to raise the dead vehemently disturbed the quietness. The birds swiftly took flight while tweeting and in a hurry flew further from the source of the sound. Tarzan thought that one of the apes ended up in the poachers' traps. He didn't have to travel far to find the origin of the previous cry and sobbing. Near the trunk of a close by tree Tarzan stumbled upon the sitting and crying Terkina, her tears were falling as the Niagara. Harambé was sitting next to her and tried comforting her without any success while hugging her.  
"Terk, the fact that we're going to have a child does not mean it's the end of the world."  
"It's easy for you to say! You're not the one who has to carry it in the body, give birth to it, breastfeed it, clean up after it, and discipline it! If you haven't noticed so far, THIS IS NOT HOW WE PLANNED OUR LIVES TOGETHER, KETTLEHEAD!"  
Terkina roared the 2nd half of the last sentence as loud as possible, her voice getting hoarse, in Harambé's face then, she continued the crying noisily. The male mournfully and helplessly looked at Tarzan.  
"Help us somehow."  
After the gorilla girl spat out her story to Tarzan with great difficulty while shedding tears the man tried, based on what was told to him, to calm her saying that she may not be pregnant. He phoned the gorilla research center which was 5 kilometers away, where erudite ape doctors did their tasks, to make an appointment for his friend for the quickest pregnancy test. Due to his good relations and Terkina's heart-sore Terk got an appointment for the next day. During the hours of waiting the gorilla was so heartbroken that she hardly ate and barely any food remained in her, she didn't sleep through the night. Harambé helplessly witnessed his mate's torments, he failed in getting rest during the night too. A lot of us were interested in Terkina's fate. I had little sleep and the few I had was awful.

Andrew, Judith, Oldulayo and I went over to Tarzan's. We boarded Tarzan's 5-person, muddy, metallic blue pick-up truck while Terkina took her place on the cargo bed. A trail led to the center. Everyone could enter the lobby of the big white building whose walls were decked with photos of various gorilla specimens in several different places. We received a warm greeting and were escorted into the vet's office. A young, kind, humorous, dark-skinned man wearing a white coat was expecting us. His black dreadlocks covered his back. Tarzan and the gorilla doctor grappled each other's hand, pulled each other closer and with their free hands patted each other's backs. Tarzan introduced us to Keyta, who turned out to be a close buddy of Tarzan. It could be concluded from Keyta's mode of expressing himself that he likes using slang.  
"The mooker doesn't seem fit."  
"Yesterday was exceedingly hard for her, she didn't even sleep, she's not in a good mood at all," Tarzan let him know.  
"Please get her to lay on her back," requested the doctor, while pointing to a low table made of metal supported by one leg.  
Tarzan chaperoned the gorilla to the table, who laid on it. He stayed by her head and explained that the examination won't hurt, but she will feel something cold on her lower belly and told her not to get startled. During the ultrasound examination Tarzan was fumbling in Terkina's long hair and was softly speaking to her to relax her.  
"We are done," said Keyta. "She didn't take the fly!"  
The ape, confused, glanced at Tarzan.  
"You're pregnant with twins," announced Tarzan.  
In that second as Terk distorted her face and tears welled up in her eyes, Tarzan gently jolted Terkina while saying that he was kidding and that she's really not pregnant. Keyta expounded that Terk is false pregnant and needs to take medication so that this ceases faster. He also mentioned that the gorilla's protection method against pregnancy is nearly 100% safe and that she needn't worry. He suggested that if she still doesn't wish to have children, she shouldn't mate while her false pregnancy lasts and that she should wait for 3 cycles after it and if the cycles are in the norm she can mate again. After leaving the building while walking towards the car, our wooly little friend got in front of us and with great momentum jumped on Tarzan, sat on his belly, gripped the collar of his shirt and began shaking him while emitting earsplitting yelling.  
"WE DON'T JOKE THAT SOMEONE'S PREGNANCY TEST RESULT IS POSITIVE WHEN SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THAT SHE'S PREGNANT AND A POSSIBLE PREGNANCY IS CAUSING HER SPIRITUAL PAIN, YOU IDIOT! HOW DID YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME, WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND, WHEN YOU SEE HOW MUCH I AM SUFFERING! SENSELESS BEAST!"  
During the second half of the loud screaming Terkina's tears had started falling. A crying spell overtook her after she intensely extruded her thoughts out of her mouth. She crept off Tarzan.  
The man squatted down to Terk's level.  
"I'm sorry for brutally joking you. Don't cry," tried Tarzan with an apology.  
"You really overshot the mark. You caused me horrible pain..." sorrowfully splattered the ape who was still shedding tears.  
"Can I hug you," enquired Tarzan.  
"I'd rather you don't touch me right now," requested Terkina then, hopped up on the cargo bed of the pick-up truck.  
After we returned to Tarzan's place, we witnessed the sight of Jane and the entire band of gorillas. About 20-25 apes were situated around the young, slender, brunette lady.  
"The collars, which we ordered, have arrived. Moreover, yesterday the law, which states that mountain gorillas of Congo cannot be exported abroad not even for the aim of selling them to zoos, was accepted and inducted," Jane told Tarzan.  
"Great," Tarzan shouted from joy then, turned towards us and shared with us the useful information about the collars.  
"These collars are only half a centimeter wide, are covered in gorilla fur colored velvet which has hairs of the same color protruding out of them so that the poachers would have a high probability not noticing them. Their most important trait is that we are able to see their precise GPS coordinates."  
Tarzan assisted Jane in the placing of the collars on their owners to be. After that, Jane inculcated in the apes that they should not remove their collars since if somebody were to get captured than that someone would be easily located and retrieved. After the talking-to Harambé, a little vertiginously, crawled up to Terkina, quivering from nervousness. His mate calmed him with the good news and let him know the other information that was discussed at the doctor's.  
"Glad I got this off my chest," exclaimed the silverback and speedily, strongly embraced his female.  
"Well I am disappointed," sat upon the couple an older female tone. Everybody's attention was raised by the robustious comment and everyone looked at Terkina's mother. Harambé released Terk, while feeling fed up drew close to her mother, and said the following in her eyes in a venomous, raised tone:  
"How about getting off of your daughter's back from this point on!? By the way your arrogance also disturbs me, let everyone decide for his or herself whether he or she wants to reproduce at all or not! If you want a grandchild that much go, seek out Kerchak, and create a child with him! Then, that child will make you a grandchild!"  
During the time the young male was making his comeback, when Kerchak heard his name, he became alert and started paying attention to the argument, he didn't like what he was hearing. He rashly crept to his debating kin.  
"Or join Zugor, Mama Gunda and her two "little" boys," requested Kerchak in an irritable tone of voice from Terk's mother. The facial expressions of several gorillas, who were sitting in our environment, indicated abhorrence.  
"Kerchak, I don't think you should wish such things," advised Kala, who was eating with her son, gently.  
"Who's Zugor and his company, what's the problem with them," asked Judith.  
"We don't speak about this," answered Kerchak. "By the way a better idea than this didn't come to my mind right now. I didn't want to suggest Tublat and his new band, they are still very brutal. Oh, I forgot Gobu, who reclaimed his old troop from Tublat with our help, who already left them. I don't know how he and his new band would tolerate Terk's mother."  
"Why don't you talk about this," enquired Oldulayo.  
"Fine, I will tell you, but don't mention this, this is taboo to us. Zugor is actually not fully gorilla. His father was a gorilla and his mother a chimpanzee. I don't know what drove them to found a family. Long story short, Zugor is a hybrid, these cases are ignominious to us. Since Zugor aged the chimpanzee genes have become very visible: his fur is brown, he has white hairs on his head, his skin is light. This is all you need to know about Zugor himself. His mate is a short, overweight, bossy female who goes by the name Mama Gunda. From her previous relationship she has 2 adult sons. One of them is not too smart, but not a little dumb, the other is aggressive. They were expelled from all of the local troops due to their behavior, also we didn't take them in in the long term. Mama Gunda became Zugor's mate when they were fighting, Zugor still leads the 4-membered band and is still Mama Gunda's mate. They get along well with each other."  
"Interesting," I said. "So, you consider Zugor an unholy mongrel and hybridization is a taboo topic."  
"Yes," chimed Terk's mother while glaring daggers at Kerchak feeling offended.  
"Don't look at me like that, the problem is with your behavior. You try to force your will on your daughter. You also make me nervous when you are pushy during estrus, you also chop in the leading of the band when you don't have experience in this," remarked Kerchak calmly in a bored tone of voice. "I have had it with you, you have 2 choices: you stay with us AND stop trying to control others or join Mama Gunda's group or Gobu's, I don't care which one. Choose wisely," continued Kerchak with a bit of harshness.  
Tarzan showed us the photos of the mentioned specimens on his phone. Andrew started joking.  
"Will Terkina look like Mama Gunda when she gets older? Their hairstyle is similar."  
The mentioned ape girl shot an ugly look at Andrew.  
"How come Mama Gunda's sons are so large? Are they genetically manipulated or was Mama Gunda's previous mate King Kong or Mighty Joe Young? Oh, Anita, look! Tublat's head looks like Barry White's! I am sure that he will be your favorite gorilla! Do I see it well, that Gobu's hairs are turning grey? And what's this!? Gobu's and Terk's picture together! How will Harambé react," asked Andrew while pretending to be excited.  
"He knows that we once dated and that it was my first and my last date with him," mentioned Terk, a little embarrassed.  
"How come it ended so soon," enquired Judith.  
"There are several reasons for this. He dated other girls. He wanted to go too fast in our relationship, at the end of the date he wanted to do kissing with me, he held me tightly so that he could do this easier," answered the ape.  
"And did he succeed," asked Andrew enthusiastically while grinning. "If he could do it did you contract Ebola from him? If you have Ebola you can bite me. Not too long ago I recovered from cholera, I need to try a new kind of illness, Ebola would be great."  
"He didn't succeed," retorted Terk with a pinch of anger. "I gave him a black eye, he released me, I galloped away from him as fast as I could while he made coarse remarks about me. Up until then I wasn't acquainted with his arrogant side."  
"That's horrible," said Judith empathetically.  
"It is. And the story doesn't end there. I heard news from him earlier. Currently, he has 3 females and has a kid from each of them. There are extremes in the way he treats his females and his children act wilder than average kids. This is all I know," reacted the gorilla girl.  
Harambé and Terkina returned back to their nest on the ground to finally make up the sleep that they had lost. Terk's mother sauntered away at a slow pace, a little dejectedly, it could be seen that she is clear about how big her problem is. Kerchak returned to Kala. We also went back home.

I felt so weary, I found yesterday and today to be emotionally burdensome. I felt that I should somehow ease the tension. An idea came to mind. I skittered up to my room and got dressed. I put on black bellbottoms and a black shirt which was slim tailored but a little baggy which adumbrated my plump hourglass. My top was decorated with 2 cute, cartoonish African hedgehogs. I put on black shoes. I scurried down to the terrace and played Street Talk by Bob Crewe on my phone on maximum volume and began to dance. A while later my nervousness started evaporating when I felt the music. My attention was so detracted by what I was doing that I didn't notice Andrew standing in the door.  
"Is the bash starting," he asked.  
I was startled, I quickly stopped the music and haltingly explained that I am driving away my stress.  
"May I join," he enquired.  
"Yes," I replied.  
I replayed the song from the beginning, we were briskly dancing together. At the half of the disco hit Andrew glanced toward the yard and jumped back out of fright. I looked in the same direction and became numb. Kerchak was standing on all fours on the stairs joining the yard and the terrace. Andrew and I were standing mute.  
"What are you doing," asked Kerchak.  
"We're dancing," I answered sheepishly. "These past 2 days have been enough for me, I banish my suspense with dance. Andrew decided he wants to join me."  
"Carry on, it doesn't bother me."  
"Okay," I said strangely and restarted the song. Andrew and I starting jamming intensely again. Kerchak stood up on his hind legs and tried to dance.  
"Like this," I said, while I made a wave-like motion with my torso and bottom.  
"No way," barked Andrew. "A silverback cannot dance like a woman! Leave him to me!"  
As the disco hits from the 70s and 80s were playing the gorilla got better and better at dancing. Shortly he could dance intensely as well as we could. I even taped him as he was dancing with Andrew. We had fun for an hour then, tired out.  
"How come you're here all alone without your family," I asked.  
"I flipped out," he answered shorty.  
"Did Terkina's mom cause it," I enquired.  
"Yes," said the leading male sadly. "Terk's mom made her decision of leaving my troop out of free will and joining Gobu's family. Another female and our child will go with her out of solidarity but I think they have fared well with us. I found out that she has been jealous of Kala for quite a time. I am accountable for this too. I am not able to love all of my females equally. Kala's my favorite," explained Kerchak.  
"I don't know what to advise. Maybe spend more time with the other girls," I guessed.  
"I'll have to," answered Kerchak glumly. "It wouldn't be good if they would leave one after another. If this were to happen and if we would be raided to such an extent that I wouldn't be able to deflect the attackers on my own but would need the troop's combined strength, we would be too few."  
After sighing loudly the gorilla spatiated back to his band.


	8. Abduction

One week later on Saturday at forenoon we received news from Tarzan that Terkina had been abducted. The disappearance was noticed only minutes ago, Terk's GPS coordinates indicated that she was sojourning in Oslo in Norway. It was also determined in the gorilla research center that she is staying in the suburban area in the garden of a mansion belonging to a rich family.

During further investigation it was ascertained that the Borger family is famous. The father's name is Felix, does acting for a living while the mother, Agnes, is a politician. They have 2 children a 13-year-old girl and a boy who is 10 years of age. Oldulayo, Andrew, Judith and I walked to Tarzan's place to enquire about how we can lend some assistance. Tarzan and his wife seemed nervous, Harambé was sitting near them and was being digested by mournfulness. He was the only eye and ear witness of the entire happening. He shared the events with us.

Yesterday afternoon the silverback and his mate ventured further from the band and were having fun, Harambé was chasing Terkina. The female cried in pain, unexpectedly stopped in her tracks and pulled an arrow out from her side, while Harambé was hit too. Terk turned around, took a few faint steps toward her mate then, collapsed. Harambé tried fighting against the numbness spreading and taking over his body, but soon touched the ground. The last thing he saw was his comatose female being dragged to between the bushes. After the report Tarzan let himself be heard and gave us pieces of advice.  
"Publicity is very crucial. Share the incident on social media, it's important to flood these websites with the news. What you shouldn't forget in your posts is the brief attachment about the Congolese law which prohibits the export of gorillas abroad for any reason. You will find the document on my Facebook and Instagram page. It's momentous that the folks are familiar with the proof supporting our claims."  
"All right," answered Oldulayo. "What are you going to do," he enquired.  
"We are going to spread the news on the internet too and we will try to retrieve Terk with a legal procedure," answered Tarzan.  
We wandered home and after lunch we had an assembly, all of our colleagues were present. We let them know about Terkina's disappearance and the methods of assistance. Thank God, they acted quickly.


	9. To Norway, we go!

During this week the events reved up. Kerchak endeavored to spend more time with the females besides Kala. To our surprise he memorized the lyrics of the Barry White song All Because of You after hearing them and he performed the hit for all the ladies. 2 young, foreign gorilla girls joined Kerchak's troop. They decided that they want to be family members. Kerchak's and Kala's son, Kerchak Jr., fell ill and developed a fever. He didn't want to eat, just sleep. When Kala noticed the symptoms she and her mate immediately hurried to Tarzan. The man transported the baby at once to the hospital of the research center where they had nursed him for a week. This was Kerchak's and Kala's longest and most heart-wrenching week, they were afraid of losing this son as well. The little gorilla made a speedy recovery. Terkina's mother soon gained control over Gobu's troop due to her strong, willful nature. She was able to oppress the other females Gobu didn't do anything to prevent her. After a short time she got pregnant from the male. Tarzan created a group on Messenger in which he informed us that the legal action will take place in Norway next week Friday. He mentioned that if we would like to we can accompany him, Jane and John, their lawyer.

Oldulayo, Andrew, Judith and I chose to travel to Norway. Jane suggested that we should feel free to get acquainted with the people around us then, become their acquaintances on social media afterwards, bring up Terkina's case. The 13-hour flight, which was on Wednesday, fagged us out. Andrew and I couldn't sleep in the sitting position so we resorted to watching movies. Near the end of the trip at forenoon I went to the toilet and examined myself in the mirror. I noticed that my eyes had dark shadows under them as a raccoon's. I started chuckling even when I made myself out of the stall.  
"What's so funny," asked Judith.  
"I look like a racoon," I answered while failing to keep myself from laughing out loud.  
"Well, I have changed my Tena Lady 3 times so far," advertised Andrew vociferously.  
A few foreign passengers' heads jerked up. Andrew continued his joking.  
"It was so full as a Japanese fast train during rush our. It was so visible back there that it looked as if I had slid two halves of a cantaloupe into my pants."  
Even more travellers' attention was raised by my colleague, about 3-4 people were tittering at him. Andrew got up from his seat and stood in the isle. Judging by his facial expression he was preparing to do something.  
"My name's Andrew, but you can call me Tena Man. Take a gander at this," he exclaimed.  
My colleague yanked his iPad out of his handbag and played a video. When he turned the screen towards us, I recognized Andrew and Kerchak doing the disco in it. More and more fellow passengers drew closer, even Tarzan and Jane, who saw the footage for the first time.  
"Is this authentic," enquired a nordic type girl.  
"Yes," answered Tarzan then showed several pictures of the silverback on his phone. 3 Dutch travelers identified Tarzan since they were following him on Facebook. They were interested in Terk. After the video ended Tarzan explained who he is, introduced us and made the case of his best friend known. He let everyone in on Terkina's current situation, spoke about the Borger family and requested the people to share his posts about the gorilla girl on social media. He put an emphasis on the caliber of publicity. He also called attention to the fact that his ape-friend has lived her whole life in the jungle in the circle of her family and it's not life for a gorilla to be the house pet of a wealthy family, especially for a specimen which wasn't born in captivity.  
"I am disappointed in Felix," announced a slightly overweight, reddish blonde haired, green eyed, Norwegian girl indignantly. "Probably Terk was captured because not too long ago it was his son's, Sven's, birthday. I know the Borger family a little thanks to my 13-year-old niece who is classmates with Felix's daughter, Agnetha. By the way, I am Anna, an animal rights activist and I live here in Oslo. If you need help in anything maybe I can assist."  
Tarzan walked up to Anna.  
"In the ways I mentioned before you are able to help. I thought of something else too but I don't know if it's doable," said Tarzan.  
"What idea do you have," wondered the young girl.  
"I don't know what your relation with your niece is like, nor with the Borgers," replied Tarzan a little uncomfortably.  
"I don't meet with Gertrud frequently, our relation is not bad. We usually come in contact during family get-togethers. We rather keep in touch via Messenger. I haven't met the Borger family yet, Gertrud visits Agnetha," explained Anna.  
"It would be great to charge your niece with going over to Agnetha's and collecting information about Terk in ways such as taking pictures, and making videos."  
"After I get home, I'll be on it. Since I'm travelling home you could drop in at our place, my parents have your autobiography, they like you. I think this would be a great experience for them," offered the Norwegian lady.  
After we had landed we became Facebook and Instagram acquaintances with a lot of passengers. We travelled to the hotel by taxi. I shared a room with Judith. I included Anna in our group in Messenger. She wrote to us that she would come to meet us at 5'o clock. I let her know our residence.  
"Do you think Harambé will look for another girl," Judith raised the issue.  
"I don't know. He really must be beside himself, the poor thing. It would be unfortunate if Terkina arrives home and realizes that Harambé left her. If she comes to know things that are intensely painful spiritually and emotionally she makes a scene. Remember how she reacted when the suspicion of pregnancy came up in her case and when Tarzan joked about the ultrasound result. These things ended well for her didn't they? I cannot imagine how she would behave if the events unfold unfavorably for her," I replied.  
Everyone crawled into their beds dead-tired, the next day we felt refreshed. We were expecting Anna at 5 PM in front of the accommodation. She travelled by bus and bought all of us tickets. We hopped in the bus and rode to the terminal to buy bus passes. During the journey a few people recognized Tarzan and Jane, took pictures with them and asked for their autographs. The couple gave a brief explanation about why they are here, let Terkina's story and the methods of help be known. We continued our way by bus then, afoot to the old quarters of the city.

Anna's parents' house was a traditional timber house whose roof was covered by reddish brown clay-shingles. At first sight it seemed small, after entering it noticing the warm tints and the arrangement of the furniture it looked vaster inside. Anna's kind, middle-aged parents welcomed us. They were delighted because of Tarzan. The girl's mother rushed into the living room then, returned, elbowing her way through us, with a pen and a copy of Tarzan's autobiography. After Tarzan dedicated the document we moved into the living room whose cream-yellow walls were decorated with family photos in a few places. Anna's older sister, her husband and their daughter, Anna's niece were waiting for us in the chamber. Since there were so many of us situated in the room, Anna's father carried beautifully carved, red wooden chairs out of the dining room so that everyone could have a seat. After getting to know each other we covered the topic about Terk. Tarzan discussed with Anna's family the same things that he shared on the plane. After this, Anna began speaking.  
"Gerti, would you like to help us in freeing Terkina," enquired Anna a little tensely.  
"It's hard for me to believe that Agnetha has an ape. She didn't tell me anything about this. Where are you getting this," wondered the little girl fueled by doubt.  
"Technology is so advanced, using it we know about this. I cannot reveal more about this," replied Tarzan.  
"Gerti, all you have to do is go over to her mansion. After getting deep into conversation tell her that you heard that she keeps a gorilla as a pet, say that you are interested in gorillas and would like to see hers. If she doesn't let you, at least you tried. If she lets you try taping Terk with your phone in a way that her environment is visible too. Let the folks see that she is held in captivity. Don't share the video on social media, send it to me, I will start spreading it. If Agnetha will claim that you misused her trust, say that your phone was hacked and your pictures and videos were leaked. You are doing these to reunite a gorilla with her family. How would you like it if you were torn apart from your parents and let's say they transport you to China and you have to live the rest of your life there without ever seeing your parents again," reasoned the Norwegian lady.  
"Okay, I will try," chimed the girl.  
"The faster, the better," added Anna.  
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with chatting, drinking tea and eating cookies.


	10. The trial

Finally, the day of the trial came. The legal procedure passed off sooner than I had anticipated. Our strongest reason in debate was the illegal smuggling of gorillas which we could prove with the Congolese law regarding this and with Terkina's GPS coordinates taken at various times. We left our weakest arguments for last such as ones about keeping gorillas without their mates in their unnatural environments. It seemed that the hearing would end beneficially for us, but we lost. The failure struck us unexpectedly. We left the chamber grief-stricken. We made a video in front of the building in which we thanked our followers' help and support and we informed them that the trial ended with a bad outcome for us. As we were spreading the footage Anna appeared.  
"I heard about the result. I'm sorry..." she said compassionately.  
"It's over... Terk is staying with them," moaned Tarzan, emitted a great sigh and began weeping.  
The press suddenly turned up in front of us. In unison several journalists pointed their microphones towards us, some of them were taking pictures of us. Tarzan got himself together and spoke about the events in a detailed way. He and Jane took part in several interviews in favor of Terk. We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon feeling blue. Saturday morning after breakfast Judith switched on the television. We witnessed one of the news anchors of CNN on the screen. To our amazement the news were about yesterday's happenings. I sprinted out of our room barged into Andrew's and Oldulayo's, Tarzan's and Jane's and John's room telling them to turn on the TV and watch CNN. In the news several events were mentioned: protests around the world for freeing Terkina, atrocities committed against the Borgers. The later included throwing gorilla soft toys over their gate into their yard, results of acts of vandalism on the fence, outcomes of shooting the mansion with paintballs (some windows were broken), spraying threatening messages on the sidewalk in front of their gate and sending them malicious messages on social media. Gertud's footage of the gorilla leaked deliberately was also shown. The ape was kept in a greenhouse-like structure padded with bars in the family's back yard and was sullenly sitting on the floor. Lastly, the loud protest which took place in front of the court and was turning nasty was broadcasted live. A few people egged the building. We caught sight of Anna and her family in the crowd. Several folks tossed DVD's of movies, in which Felix stars, into trash cans. On this day we invited Anna and her family to dinner at a nearby restaurant as a token of our gratitude. They shared the newest pieces of information regarding the gorilla with us.  
"When I was at Agnetha's, Agnetha and Sven complained about Terk. They believed that the three of them will have a lot of fun but were disappointed in Terk because all she did was lay around. They got bored of her fast. When their parents weren't home they let her into the house. She untidied the place and finally pooed into Felix's shoes then, went back to her place. The parents really went nuts when they got home. Felix faced his problem the next morning while putting on his shoes. The whole family wants to get rid of Terk especially now due to the high pressure generated by the media," announced Gertrud. "Oh, and I think I heard it from Felix that they paid the judge," added Gerti.  
"Seriously," asked Tarzan enthralled.  
"Yes, I heard it with my own ears," answered the little girl.  
"Can you please make a video call with Agnetha? Maybe we can come into contact with her parents and they can help us make arrangements for shipping Terkina back to Congo," enquired Jane.  
Gertrud succeeded in reaching Agnetha and her family. Tarzan controlled the conversation from our part. Tarzan, Jane, their lawyer and the Borgers agreed with meeting each other in the mansion at tomorrow noon. The others and I stayed in the hotel and killed the time by playing cards. In the afternoon we packed our suitcases for the voyage home of tomorrow. Tarzan let us know that the gorilla girl will be transported to our workers' hostel on Tuesday.


	11. Homecoming

We arrived home on Monday evening, several of us were woozy from exhaustion and had difficulties in keeping our eyes open. Our colleagues awaited us on the terrace with fresh soup. We reported to them what happened with us, ate dinner then, headed to our beds and dozed off. Terkina was returned on Tuesday afternoon. Just when she observed Tarzan she hastily galloped to him, jumped on him and embraced him. She greeted everyone then, we escorted her to her troop surrounding the tree in which Tarzan's treehouse is located. Every member scurried to her, Harambé could hardly wait to get close to his mate. He strongly clasped Terk and kissed her. Following this, he stared deeply into her eyes.  
"Terk...," he addressed her.  
"Yes," asked the unseeing ape girl.  
"I found another female and she's expecting my child," announced the silverback.  
Tarzan's best friend became paralyzed, opened her mouth but didn't make any sound.  
"I was just," started Harambé, but wasn't able to finish since in that very moment his female intensely and roughly pushed him back, sat on his belly and while holding him by his shoulders began shaking him violently while screaming at him and crying.  
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, YOU SENSELESS KETTLEHEAD!? AFTER ALL THAT WE'VE BEEN THROUGH YOU JUST TAKE IT AND CAST IT AWAY!? I WAS ONLY AWAY FOR A SHORT TIME..."  
The ape felt Tarzan's hand on her shoulder.  
"Terk, stop. Listen to what he wants to say, he started something," said Tarzan.  
The acutely tearing Terkina who felt close to being sick slowly crept off of his male and continued sobbing. Harambé sat up.  
"I was just joking. I didn't cheat on you, I'd never do that," replied the male trying to comfort his mate.  
"It was a cruel joke," responded the female haltingly. "I don't care what you do, do whatever you want," she replied while crying.  
"I'm sorry. I went too far," said the Kerchak-like male then, embraced Terkina who stopped shedding tears.  
"Where is my mother," she asked still shaken.  
"She joined Gobu's band, by the way, you're going to have a little half-sibling," announced the male.  
"And who is the father," enquired the gorilla girl.  
"Do you wanna know," replied Harambé while grinning.  
"I hope it's not you," said Terk dolefully whose eyes began welling up with tears.  
"No way! Gobu is the father," declared the silverback happily.  
Terkina's face became disfigured with disgust.  
"Look at the bright side! Your mom won't pester us with the grandchild matter, she will have offspring who will have kids," explained the male.  
We celebrated the successful search-party at our place. We also invited the gorilla band. We had a party during which Kerchak briskly did the disco.


End file.
